The original architecture of the Three Cups Chalet was the result of a very interesting mix… Indeed it is a very peculiar building that condenses a part of the Portuguese history and diaspora.

By this time Brazil was living its second industrial revolution, leaded by an elite of central-europeans that had a strong impact on the Brazilian culture of the time. As a result rich residential buildings with alpine chalet proportions and details became quite popular throughout the country. It was in this timeframe that many Portuguese returned from Brazil with large fortunes made in commerce and industry in the largest Brazilian cities, bringing this taste with them and punctuating northern Portugal with many examples of rich chalets of alpine influence.

What is the relationship between the house and the surrounding environment? The building is located in the heart of the city of Braga, inside the city’s roman walls and next to the cathedral. Though built at approximately the same time as its neighbors, as the street was opened in the late 19th century, it doesn’t quite relate with the surrounding urbanism and architecture, which has a strong Portuguese matrix, very formal, contained, of horizontal proportions and granitic accents. The chalet was built as an annex to a small palace by its side, with which it contrasts significantly, so the Three Cusps Chalets always presented itself as a modest exception to its context.

In what state was the building when this renovation project was entrusted to you? It was in formal and structural disarray: its original characteristics were lost under 120 years of small, unqualified interventions, over-compartmenting and isolating its interior from the light and the surroundings. On the outside, detailing and scale were distorted by exterior shade head-boxes, aluminium window frames and a problematic annex on the back. While the original structure was still there, some of its elements were in dire need of replacement, so there were many aspects about which the house required our attention.

How did you approach this project? Our intent was always to find the merits of the original design and make them the protagonists again, recover the original solutions, the original organization, original materials and constructions techniques, and just propose the necessary amount of transformation to render contemporary living possible on the building again.

Which are the sources of inspiration for this project? The building itself, we must confess: though it’s quite clear there’s a contemporary intervention on the Chalet, we tried to make it a very quiet, subdued intervention that would bring the original characteristics of the building to the spotlight.

Which were the goals in terms of aesthetic and functions? Functionally we intended to maintaining the original distribution of uses and the original program: we felt that it was very important to keep the residential program central, specially in light of the neighborhood’s shift to service programs (that always ends up emptying the city center of inhabitants). Aesthetically our intention was not to do a strict restoration but to tell a story about the building and its passage through time, from its construction to present day (so you’ll be able to locate many of the building’s element along that timeline) but always with the original characteristics of the building as the template.

How is the internal space organized? The building always had a very rational and flexible plan on its base, with a central staircase that generated two similar spaces on each side, one facing the street at west and another facing an interior plaza at east. Vertically the uses were stacked in function of their privacy, with public spaces on the ground-floor facing the street, the social spaces of the residential program on the first floor relating with the interior plaza, and the sleeping quarters on the second floor. We kept this original layout as is but emphasized the role of the stairs in organizing the spaces and clarifying their nature.

What materials and colours did you choose? We insisted in maintaining or re-introducing the original materials and details of the building: wood structure for floors and ceiling, wood floors, wood window-frames, marseille tiles on the roof, Portuguese Estremoz marble on impermeable surfaces: we felt they were part of the merits of the building at that it was important to recover them as a document of the way of building of that time. The white color was repeated systematically too, specially to make the small areas more airy and to maximize light in the interior of the house. Making it a rule gave us the opportunity to brake it here and there, with the wood in the dressing room or the marble on the bathrooms.

This project won several awards, the last one is the American Architecture Prize. What do you think people like about it? On one hand, I think it is because it stroke a right balance between the preservation of the defining characteristics of an interesting building and the necessary transformations to make it works with the contemporary way of living. On the other hand, I thing it’s a good example of a refurbishment project that doesn’t envolve the complete demolition of a building, using only its façade and converting it to services. It brought back the original building, with its particular characteristics, to the city, to a use, to people, while keeping its original residential program, giving an example of a possible way to maintain a sustainable, living and livable historic city center. I think it’s a happy project in that sense.